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Animal Euthanasia

Bangalore’s Dog days

By: Santosh :+: Under: Animal Euthanasia, Animal Rights, Culture
On: ⋅ March 22, 2007 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment
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This is not a seasonal reference but rather a reference to the merciless killing of dogs the City of Bangalore seems to have adopted (picked up from DesiPundit). This all started when a boy was killed by stray dogs and succumbing to mob fury, the authorities embarked on a massive canine extermination drive. The numbers are conflicting in different sources and I won’t attempt to put a head count to this operation. Rather, this post is about the inhuman way these animals are being put to death and questioning if this kind extreme approach is necessary.
Let us start with the inhuman approach angle. Barbaric may be more appropriate for this situation. Remember reading about cavemen clubbing their prey to death? That is exactly what the local authorities are doing to these poor animals. Pranav (link via My Anecdotal Archives) provides further details (warning: link contains graphic images). Now I can watch or read the most graphic of material, if I know its fictional, but this line made me cringe.

I saw a video where a municipality worker caught a dog with a steel wire and the poor dog was still wagging its tail thinking its in for a treat. Its head was smashed in moments later.

There are more humane approaches to ending an animal’s life but the concept seems ‘phoren’ to the authorities.
Now for the extreme approach angle. A boy was killed by dogs. That is a tragic incident and human lives are more precious. But I have to question the wisdom of putting down hundreds and reportedly even thousands of dogs. This is probably not the first time dogs are being put to death in large numbers. If there was a massive outbreak of rabies or some dog-to-human contagious disease, then this approach, albeit brutal, would make sense in terms of practicality. Areas with human population are most likely to have large stray population of canines and felines. In some areas, authorities take a more civilzed approach by conducting massive nuetering of stray animals, put them in shelters to reduce their contact with humans and if the population gets out of hand, performing euthanasia among the problematic species. Waiting till the population gets out of hand and then doing an Attila the Hun on them, is a disservice to the animals, humans and reflects badly on our society in general.

Disclaimer: I may come off as biased on this topic but as a proud friend of two canine companions and as someone who has worked with local animal rescue groups, I completely understand the pros and cons of keeping an animal alive versus putting it to sleep, and if so, the best way to help them pass on. If you have a strawman argument like “You value animals over human life”, please refer to Pranav’s blog linked above, as he has addressed all straw man points related to this topic in a manner far more effectively than I can.

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